Paddington Station (C405) was one of the most significant stations on the Elizabeth Line programme, adding a new station to the south of Brunel’s 19th century station. Paddington is a key interchange with the existing Network Rail services at Paddington Mainline station and the London Underground. IPMA CEO Keith McDaid led a team to deliver the handover of the MEPH systems on the £150m contract.

Key elements of the C405 project included:

• Building and structures works.
• Highway works and traffic management.
• Surface water drainage and utilities.
• Ground control and monitoring.
• Mechanical, electrical, fire and public health works.
• Installation of system-wide communications equipment and materials.
• Landscaping, site restoration and urban realm.

IPMA was tasked with developing the handover system and processes that would affect all MEPH elements on the project, with the aim of opening the station within the specified timeline and budget. As first on site to develop the MEPH elements, the team could use its expertise to ensure processes were set up to get the project ‘right first time’.

1. Ending delay:

• Discipline-specific and experienced personnel were hired to minimise potential delays in delivery. These discipline-specific engineers would manage the handover of the systems and manage the integration of these systems, aiding the T&C team in bringing them to life.
• We created an interface between design, installation and assurance experts to ensure site issues and buildability issues were resolved in minimum time to keep the site installation teams on target. Efficient communication was key.
• Interface between the programme and planners was held weekly to keep the programme accurate and input any information that would take additional time to resolve or input any time savings where we had gained time.

2. Communication was key to ensuring we had all priorities in place to be completed right first time. We implemented an 8am daily meeting with the installation teams so everyone was clear on what had to happen and when – this facilitated the teams to install, rework and finish on time.

Our work ensured the streamlined handover of station systems in the following way:

1. Minimised delay on installation and assurance paperwork.
2. Acceptance of systems on time.
3. The creation of a positive environment as a result of delivering the correct assurance documentation.
4. The promotion of a more collaborative approach.